Smoking 2002 Camry Sportivo

[BorderCollie]

Hi there. The guts of this story is a 2002 3L Auto Camry Sportivo (120,000km), that started to blow a load of smoke when it went around corners (in particular turning off a freeway off ramp). Took it to Toyota and was basically told I was confusing smoke with steam )

After following their only suggestion I put oil cleaner in before each change and strangely enough the smoking around corners slowly subsided to nothing after 2 changes but was replaced with white smoke only on start up. But only when I go on the freeway or a 20min trip where speeds get over 60. Shorter trips/low lower speeds don't give me a smoking car.

Well sort of . My son checks the oil/sump for drips etc and strangely enough, more often than not if he checks the oil or wipes around the sump seal the car will blow a small amount of smoke when it would normally not smoke (after a short trip).

So as weird as it sounds, my questions are, could something be blocked ? Seeing the problem sort of got better could/would dropping the sump and cleaning it out help ?

Oh, the only thing I'm loosing (other than my mind :))is engine oil as the transmission oil is fine and coolant looks ok too.

Any insights at all will be appreciated.

[eviltwin]

My guess is that a seal is gone and it's causing oil to drop onto the exhaust manifold and thats where your smoke/steam is coming from!

[Kenshin X]

Hi there. The guts of this story is a 2002 3L Auto Camry Sportivo (120,000km), that started to blow a load of smoke when it went around corners (in particular turning off a freeway off ramp). Took it to Toyota and was basically told I was confusing smoke with steam )

After following their only suggestion I put oil cleaner in before each change and strangely enough the smoking around corners slowly subsided to nothing after 2 changes but was replaced with white smoke only on start up. But only when I go on the freeway or a 20min trip where speeds get over 60. Shorter trips/low lower speeds don't give me a smoking car.

Well sort of . My son checks the oil/sump for drips etc and strangely enough, more often than not if he checks the oil or wipes around the sump seal the car will blow a small amount of smoke when it would normally not smoke (after a short trip).

So as weird as it sounds, my questions are, could something be blocked ? Seeing the problem sort of got better could/would dropping the sump and cleaning it out help ?

Oh, the only thing I'm loosing (other than my mind :))is engine oil as the transmission oil is fine and coolant looks ok too.

Any insights at all will be appreciated.

white smoke is either u overfilled the engine with engine oil or on cold starts that is normal...

oil cleaner u mean oil flush? not really recommended as it takes the sludge (if u already got some around the rings) this causes the oil to leak into seals and combust with fuel and hence blue smoke comes out... u didn't specify the colour and amount and when the engine is cold/hot

[BorderCollie]

white smoke is either u overfilled the engine with engine oil or on cold starts that is normal...

oil cleaner u mean oil flush? not really recommended as it takes the sludge (if u already got some around the rings) this causes the oil to leak into seals and combust with fuel and hence blue smoke comes out... u didn't specify the colour and amount and when the engine is cold/hot

It's a whitish (might have a slight tinge of blue) exhaust smoke that appears after a "longish" trip. If I restart straight away it doesn't appear but leave it an hour or 2 or overnight and it appears. It's definitely not a dark smoke. Amount well I'm not sure how define it but way way more than the steam on a cold morning.

I wouldn't have guessed that it's engine oil apart from that's the only thing that's being used.

I put the oil flush in after toyota told me to. Go figure.

Eviltwins comment sounds good apart from it's coming out of the exhaust.

[maikulz]

white smoke is either u overfilled the engine with engine oil or on cold starts that is normal...

oil cleaner u mean oil flush? not really recommended as it takes the sludge (if u already got some around the rings) this causes the oil to leak into seals and combust with fuel and hence blue smoke comes out... u didn't specify the colour and amount and when the engine is cold/hot

It's a whitish (might have a slight tinge of blue) exhaust smoke that appears after a "longish" trip. If I restart straight away it doesn't appear but leave it an hour or 2 or overnight and it appears. It's definitely not a dark smoke. Amount well I'm not sure how define it but way way more than the steam on a cold morning.

I wouldn't have guessed that it's engine oil apart from that's the only thing that's being used.

I put the oil flush in after toyota told me to. Go figure.

Eviltwins comment sounds good apart from it's coming out of the exhaust.

White smoke with blueish tinge....

Correct me if I m wrong, but it seems you have a leaking head gasket. When coolant mix with engine oil it tends to give off a blue smoke.

[trentmeyer23]

Water = white smoke, oil = blue smoke u do the maths

[Ronnyboy]

Water = white smoke, oil = blue smoke u do the maths

I agree........

[BorderCollie]

Water = white smoke, oil = blue smoke u do the maths

I agree........

yep I'm not disagreeing but between 2 mechanics saying it wasn't, no signs in the oil or coolant etc, no coolant usage is there a chance that it's something else ?

I think I'm trying to understand the chain of events so why would it blow smoke only after longer trips ? I would've thought the coolant would get in every time. Why did it reduce after the oil changes ? It may be one of those things but would be nice to know.

[Ronnyboy]

If all the above fails, You can also try those Rip off Fuel Injector Service and fluid Flush that Toyota offers, not sure if it will work.

Maybe even Fill up with the Vortex 98 Fuel.......